Three rescued from fire

Three people were rescued when their shrimp boat caught fire in the Houston Ship Channel, one of the United State’s busiest seaports. Although Coast Guard units and a helicopter were prepared to perform the rescue, a nearby boater witnessed the fire first and evacuated three people from the boat before rescue efforts could be mounted.

According to Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Lehman, a fire ignited on the burning shrimp boat while it was about half a mile off the Galveston jetties at the east end of the island, near Port Bolivar. Dense black smoke filled the sky above the channel shortly after 10:00 a.m., alerting many nearby boaters and the Coast Guard’s traffic service station of the ensuing danger. The 55-foot shrimp boat, believed to be the Captain Hunter, was a fixture in the busy hub of the Houston Ship Channel.